Retribution Paladin PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.1)

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play
in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from
talent choices, PvP talents, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It
is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will
work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Retribution Paladins

Despite its low mobility as a melee class, Retribution is a very strong
specialization. Strong burst in combination with its powerful
utility make it difficult to play and master. Matched with classes with strong
consistent damage, like Hunters, it can be a struggle for most classes to play
against.

1.1. Strengths of Retribution Paladins

Strong burst damage

Great consistent and cleave damage

Multiple ways to remove crowd control for teammates and themselves

1.2. Weaknesses of Retribution Paladins

Limited mobility

Target of choice for most teams

Very few defensive cooldowns

2. Stat Priority for Retribution Paladins in PvP

The stat priority for Retribution Paladin in PvP is as follows:

Strength;

Haste;

Mastery;

Critical Strike;

Versatility.

Strength is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary
stat at all times due to it reducing the Global Cooldown on abilities and
increasing your attack speed. Mastery increases your Holy damage and will
increase your damage by a large amount.

3. Azerite Traits for Retribution Paladins

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each
Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in
your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage or healing of certain
abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you
use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be
using.

3.1. Outer Ring

The most important trait you are going to want to get in all pieces of your
gear is Avenger's Might. This increases your burst damage
significantly. The downside to this trait is that is it only active while your
burst cooldown, Avenging Wrath, is active. If you
want more sustained damage, you should use Champion of Azeroth or
Laser Matrix.

3.2. Middle Ring

The middle and inner rings are important for additional defensives.
Retribution Paladins are very weak when they are put into stuns. Traits like
Azerite Veins and Azerite Fortification
increase your survivability. Gutripper and Lifespeed
traits increase your damage.

3.3. Inner Ring

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all
passive, but are crucial to have.

4. Gear Recommendations

4.1. General Guidelines

In general, Retribution Paladins want to get trinkets that line up well with
Avenging Wrath. These trinkets can
have a passive or on-use effect. The
stats you want to be increasing are either Strength or Versatility. The reason
you want to increase Versatility is because it increases both your damage and
healing. Strength is great for increasing your consistent damage output.

4.1.2. Shoulders

4.1.3. Chest

4.2. Recommended Items

Dread Gladiator's Badge is strong for the versatility and the on-use
Strength effect. This will drastically increase the damage you deal while it is
active and should be used while Avenging Wrath is active.

Dread Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and
has a passive effect. This effect increases your Strength. This increases your
sustained damage.

4.3. Weapon Enchant

Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation is the best weapon enchants. The
Haste you gain from this enchant proc benefits you in multiple ways.
Having a high amount of Haste drastically reduces your global cooldown. This
will allow you to use more abilities while
Avenging Wrath is active. The Haste is also great
for healing you or your teammates.

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the
viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that
follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

5.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

Righteous Verdict is the best choice in this tier. This talent helps
increase both your burst and sustained damage.

5.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Blade of Wrath is the best choice in this tier. This proc is great
for increasing your sustained damage. However, if you are playing against a
team with multiple slows and you will not be able to autoattack often,
Hammer of Wrath is the better choice. This will increase your burst
damage and help kill enemies at low health.

5.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Fist of Justice is the best choice in this tier.
Hammer of Justice is the strongest crowd control you have. This talent
will help reduce its cooldown significantly.

5.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Wake of Ashes is the best choice in this tier. This talent not only
provides strong cleave damage, but it also gives you 5 Holy Power. This will
help with increasing your overall damage.

Important note about this talent: it stuns Demon and Undead enemies. This
includes Warlock and Death Knight pets.

5.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

If you are playing against a team with one or more melee on it,
Eye for an Eye is the best choice in this tier. This will greatly
increase your survivability against melee teams. However, if you are playing
against a team with two casters, Unbreakable Spirit is the best choice
in this tier.

5.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

Word of Glory is the best choice in this tier. With 2 charges, this
heal is instant and is crucial for your team's survivability if your healer is
in crowd control.

5.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Divine Purpose is the best choice in this tier. Because there is a
chance that your next ability that costs Holy Power will be free, this talent
is crucial for Retribution Paladins. This will reduce the cooldown of
Hammer of Justice's cooldown when you use an ability. This also pairs
well with Word of Glory.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of
them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others.
The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP
talents, depending on your team's goal.

Blessing of Sanctuary removes all stun, silence, fear, and horror
effects from you target. It also reduces the duration of these effects for 5
seconds. This gives you extra utility when playing against teams with several
of these effects.

Lawbringer makes Judgment now apply Lawbringer
to its initial target. Enemies hit by Law Bringer will lose up to 5% of their
health. This talent is great versus teams that will be stacked often. Your
cleave damage increases drastically versus these teams.

Vengeance Aura makes it so that whenever you or your partners get
put into crowd control, your Holy Damage and critical strike increases. This is
great versus druids with Cyclone or Mages with Polymorph. You
can replace Blessing of Sanctuary with this PvP talent, as long as the
enemy team does not have much crowd control.

7. Racial Bonuses for Retribution Paladins

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best
races to choose for each faction.

7.2. Alliance

8. Playstyle for Retribution Paladins

Retribution Paladins have two main roles in PvP: use your strong
single-target damage to force cooldowns and use your utility to help you or
your teammates survive until you can use your burst cooldowns again. With tools
such as Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Protection and
Blessing of Sanctuary, it makes your team very hard for the enemy team
to kill. It is important to rotate cooldowns properly and know when it is a
good idea to use Blessing of Sanctuary to break crowd control or when to
use Blessing of Protection on you or a teammate that is being focused.
You also have Flash of Light that comes in handy when the enemy has no
kicks or is not focusing you.

8.1. Before Gates Open

Know exactly who you will use Hammer of Justice on. Most of the time,
you will be using it on the enemy healer and trying to kill a DPS.

8.2. The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done
as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force
your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in
the opener, they are in trouble. Retribution Paladins have
Hammer of Justice that should be used on enemy healers, depending on
your team's strategy.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the
game.

8.3. Defensive Techniques

Divine Shield is your main defensive ability. This makes you immune
to everything for 8 seconds. This should be used as a last resort when your
healer cannot keep you alive.

Shield of Vengeance is strong if you can use it before an enemy uses
a stun, but can be just as effective if you do not. Use this as your first
defensive against caster teams that are focusing you, because
Blessing of Protection will not help you much.

Blessing of Protection is your secondary defensive ability. This is a
powerful ability that can be used on either you or your teammates. This makes
the player immune to all physical damage. It is powerful against melee teams,
but makes you very weak to teams with casters.

Blessing of Freedom can also be used defensively. It can be used on
you or a teammates. If your teammates are being focused and they need a way to
get away from the enemies, use this on them.

Blessing of Sanctuary should be used on a teammate that is in crowd
control and does not have or wants to use trinket.

Word of Glory has 2 charges and is an instant heal that costs
3 Holy Power. This should be used whenever one of your teammates is struggling
to stay alive and your healer needs help.

9. Best Team Compositions for Retribution Paladins

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage
rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. Retribution Paladins
have the ability to play aggressively with their offensive cooldowns or use
their utility to play defensively with their Blessing of Freedoms or
Blessing of Protection.

9.1. 2v2 Arena

In 2v2 Arena you will be focusing on cleave damage. Retribution Paladins
have multiple defensives that allow them to survive high dampening situations.
For example, Divine Shield will always make you immune to all damage,
even in long matches with high dampening. The same goes for
Blessing of Protection that makes you immune to all physical damage. You
also have Hammer of Justice which helps with setting up crowd control on
enemy healers.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

Retribution Paladin + Restoration Shaman

Retribution Paladin + Restoration Druid

Retribution Paladin + Mistweaver Monk

Retribution Paladin + Discipline Priest

9.2. 3v3 Arena

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will likely be focusing on on
maximizing your cleave damage and dealing devastating damage to teams that are
stacked often. When your team has damage, you will want to use
Hammer of Justice on the enemy healer and use your burst rotation. Use
your Blessing of Freedom on you or your teammate if you are struggling
to connect to your target.Teams can easily kill you in one
stun if you are playing too aggressively.

10. Useful Macros for Retribution Paladins

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use
abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall
damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that
all Retribution Paladins can benefit from.

10.1. Hammer of Justice 123 Macro

#showtooltip Hammer of Justice

/cast [target=arena1] Hammer of Justice

Using this macro will use Hammer of Justice on arena enemy 1. This
makes it easier to crowd control an enemy while still damaging the enemy team.
If you want macros for the second and third enemies, simply change the arena1
to arena2 or arena3.

10.2. Freedom Party Macro

#showtooltip Blessing of Freedom

/cast [target=party1] Blessing of Freedom

Using this macro will use Blessing of Freedom on party player 1.
This makes it easier to freedom a teammate while still damaging the enemy team.
If you want a macro to freedom the second party member, change the party1 to
party2.

10.3. Sanctuary Party Macro

#showtooltip Blessing of Sanctuary

/cast [target=party1] Blessing of Sanctuary

Using this macro will use Blessing of Sanctuary on party player 1.
This makes it easier to dispel crowd control that is on a teammate while still
damaging the enemy team. If you want a macro to dispel the second party
member, change the party1 to party2.

11. Changelog

13 Dec. 2018: Updated Azerite traits section.

12 Dec. 2018: No major changes needed for Patch 8.1.

09 Nov. 2018: Added Gear Recommendations section.

08 Oct. 2018: Added talent table.

02 Oct. 2018: Removed PvP Gear and War Mode sections.

25 Sep. 2018: Added Stat Priority section.

Added Azerite Traits section.

21 Sep. 2018: Updated guide for Patch 8.0.1.

Updated Introduction and spec overview.

Updated tier 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 talent sections.

Added PvP (War Mode) talents and gear sections for the new BfA system.

Updated Racial Bonuses section.

Updated Burst Damage and Sustained Damage sections.

Updated Defensive section.

Removed Gear section.

Removed Artifact Traits and Relics sections.

16 May 2018: Added an Arena Compositions section.

16 Apr. 2018: Made several updates to the guide and its structure.

Added sections for Macros, Strengths, and Weaknesses.

Moved Gear, Artifact Traits, and Relics sections to the end, since they are not that important.

This guide has been written by Mysticall,
a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating.
You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can
also check out his YouTube
channel.